To go off of Killer's post I don't think we should swing left or right but have a federal gov't that strictly follows the constitution. Individual states can have varying degrees of left/right gov't but not at the federal level. The Constitution was written specifically to provide the feds with a strict set of enumerated powers and to allow the citizens of individual states to have much more autonomy over their local policies. Once the 17th went into play the whole crux of the system was removed.